(Untitled)

[sajin]

I find the concept of the five paragraph essay to be completly banal and stunting in my attempts to learn how to grow as a writer. It is absolutly destructive to ones creativity to teach the most limiting and strict form of writing as the ultimate and true way to write. As a youth I loathed the concept of writing for this very reason as I believed

Comments

[musae]

I find the value of the 5 pp-style essay is that of teaching structure in terms of presenting a clear argument and using supporting evidence to strongly support the argument. Like all forms of art, one needs to have mastered the canon before breaking all the rules

[sajin]

I understand the value of the 5 paragraph essay in teaching writing, but I do not believe that the most important element of writing is structure. It is an excellent tool, but because it was the first thing I was taught I have no greater context for understanding and now struggle with everything else. In short I believe that it should be taught as a writing tool, not as a base which to operate from/

[jessnut]

In the case of science and math classes the limited page structure makes sense because they want to teach you how to make a clear and concise point. This is the same for more analytical essay writing in literature, such as comparative or critical essays.

I have never found in school that I was limited in my writing for creative essays. Typically the teacher would give a minimum page limit but never a maximum. I regularly turned in creative essasy that we much longer than required, and always got good grades on them.

Also structure is VERy important in all writing. I have many times seen a good story ruined because the author did not know how to clearly convey the imagery or plot point their were trying to make. Run on sentances, grammer errors, and poor composition can ruin a story just as much as lifeless cahracters and dull plot lines. You need to learn to paint within the lines before you can understand how to paint outside of them and still convey the same image.

[nadyalec]

most useful article i ever read about writing: https://webspace.utexas.edu/cherwitz/www/ie/b_flowers.html

we got handed this in high school, and i'm still grateful.

[angry_american]

I have to disagree with you.

No form of writing is ever without merit, even the sestina - which is possibly the most banal form of writing imaginable.

Language, unfortunately, is only very slightly invented by you, an individual writer. The rest is provided for you by a long-standing tradition that spans several thousand (if not several dozen thousand) years. To take the time to learn a functional form is always worth it.

Indeed you may feel the need to rebel against this form, and that is essential to your development as an author.

... the form stinks but you gotta wear it.

-FW

[balothejester]

A twofold comment:

#1: You have a very interesting point here, about a different way of educating a child writing-wise; isn't there a theory of education that does hold to what you suggest? I'm not very up on the subject, but I'm curious if there are well-documented test results out there about this, as I think you may be onto something.

#2: This is Tyler! You should add me! :)